Re; Van Raak (SP) worried nothing will improve. (The Daily Herald, Tuesday, August 25, 2009, page 5)
Dear Mr. VAN RAAK,
We have taken serious notice of your concerns as published in the Daily Herald as mentioned above.
For the record.
We too have said it many times before, and repeat it here again.
As Antilleans and St. Martiners living on the island, most of us fail to see even the slightest of reason to anticipate, let alone to ‘rejoice’ in the ‘coming’ of the so-called ‘Country St. Maarten’ status, as certain politicians expect by the magical date of ‘10-10-10’.
While the main reason for this skepticism has in the past been a deep lack of trust in government and politicians in general, to date even the current government has not (yet ?) managed to fundamentally create and/or improve conditions for trust in any status change as far as we are concerned.
To the contrary.
It still appears that what most, if not all politicians are concerned about and pre-occupied with, is the creation of a new constitutional ‘structure’ with attractive positions for politicians and their cronies.
At the same time, they seem completely un-concerned about, and insensitive to the need to guarantee the interests and civic-rights of the native St. Martin people and Antilleans residing on the island.
Consequently, our very existence as a people is threatened by ‘genocide by substitution’ under the guise of ‘Country St Maarten status’.
In other words, while priority is given to bring about ‘Country St. Maarten status’, un-controlled immigration, giving all kinds of ‘trumped up’ human rights to immigrants is simply resulting in the native St. Martiners and Antilleans on the island facing their demise as a distinct people.
This should be absolutely un-acceptable within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which prides itself as model for democracy across the globe !
Therefore, inasmuch as the politicians talk about the ‘importance’ of and the ‘priority’ for constitutional change…….
Inasmuch as some of them travel throughout the Caribbean to ‘bring the Caribbean together,’………
And inasmuch as they travel to The Hague ‘demanding’ the new status by ’10-10-10’,
Inasmuch as all of the abovementioned and more, in reality the more desperate in many ways, the situation of the island is becoming by the day for the people of this land.
Indeed one really gets the impression that either the State-secretary, Anke BIJLEVELDT-SCHOUTEN is not fully aware of the dilemma the people are in, or the State-secretary knows the situation, but wants the ‘job done nevertheless’, regardless the consequences.
But guess who will still have to deal with the consequences.
Not only the people of the island, but certainly the Dutch government and Dutch tax-payers as well.
Meanwhile, the ‘clock’ keeps ticking away until such time….
If the 'new status' does not specifically benefit the people of the island and the Antilleans residing here, then what is its purpose ?
To benefit politicians and all others flocking to the 'Friendly island' by all means necessary to discover their 'human-rights' here ?
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Leopold James
President SNBF & L'Esprit de Concordia
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